Bacterial Endosymbiont of the Slender Pigeon Louse, Columbicola columbae , Allied to Endosymbionts of Grain Weevils and Tsetse Flies
- 15 October 2007
- journal article
- Published by American Society for Microbiology in Applied and Environmental Microbiology
- Vol. 73 (20), 6660-6668
- https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.01131-07
Abstract
The current study focuses on a symbiotic bacterium found in the slender pigeon louse, Columbicola columbae (Insecta: Phthiraptera). Molecular phylogenetic analyses indicated that the symbiont belongs to the gamma subdivision of the class Proteobacteria and is allied to Sodalis glossinidius , the secondary symbiont of tsetse flies ( Glossina spp.) and also to the primary symbiont of grain weevils ( Sitophilus spp.). Relative-rate tests revealed that the symbiont of C. columbae exhibits accelerated molecular evolution in comparison with the tsetse fly symbiont and the weevil symbiont. Whole-mount in situ hybridization was used to localize the symbiont and determine infection dynamics during host development. In first- and second-instar nymphs, the symbionts were localized in the cytoplasm of oval bacteriocytes that formed small aggregates on both sides of the body cavity. In third-instar nymphs, the bacteriocytes migrated to the central body and were finally located in the anterior region of the lateral oviducts, forming conspicuous tissue formations called ovarial ampullae. In adult females, the symbionts were transmitted from the ovarial ampullae to developing oocytes in the ovarioles. In adult males, the bacteriocytes often disappeared without migration. A diagnostic PCR survey of insects collected from Japan, the United States, Australia, and Argentina detected 96.5% (109/113) infection, with a few uninfected male insects. This study provides the first microbial characterization of a bacteriocyte-associated symbiont from a chewing louse. Possible biological roles of the symbiont are discussed in relation to the host nutritional physiology associated with the feather-feeding lifestyle.Keywords
This publication has 43 references indexed in Scilit:
- Evolutionary Relationships of “CandidatusRiesia spp.,” EndosymbioticEnterobacteriaceaeLiving within Hematophagous Primate LiceApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2007
- Interspecific Transfer of Bacterial Endosymbionts between Tsetse Fly Species: Infection Establishment and Effect on Host FitnessApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2006
- Symbiotic Bacteria Associated with Stomach Discs of Human LiceApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2006
- Strict Host-Symbiont Cospeciation and Reductive Genome Evolution in Insect Gut BacteriaPLoS Biology, 2006
- Developmental Origin and Evolution of Bacteriocytes in the Aphid–Buchnera SymbiosisPLoS Biology, 2003
- Phylogeny of the lice (Insecta, Phthiraptera) inferred from small subunit rRNAZoologica Scripta, 2003
- Genome evolution in bacterial endosymbionts of insectsNature Reviews Genetics, 2002
- Genome sequence of the endocellular obligate symbiont of tsetse flies, Wigglesworthia glossinidiaNature Genetics, 2002
- CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choiceNucleic Acids Research, 1994
- A simple method for estimating evolutionary rates of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotide sequencesJournal of Molecular Evolution, 1980